1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to beverage dispensers and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an improved dispensing valve mounting assembly for use in beverage dispensers, that allows for mixing fluids, such as plain and carbonated water, to be interchanged without having to disassemble and/or depressurize the beverage dispenser.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, a beverage dispenser features several dispensing valves whereby each dispensing valve is assigned a single drink flavor. Several dispensing valves enable a beverage dispenser to feature a wide variety of drink flavors. When a particular dispensing valve is activated, beverage syrup for a desired drink flavor is mixed with either carbonated water, such as when cola is required, or plain water, such as when punch is required, before being dispensed from the valve. Thus, by placing a cup accordingly and activating a valve, the beverage dispenser dispenses the resulting drink of choice into a cup below.
Market demand often requires owners of beverage dispensers to reconfigure dispensing valves to accommodate new varieties of drink flavors or more than one dispensing valve featuring the same and, typically, the most popular drink flavor. For example, when diet cola is in high demand and punch is in low demand, a beverage dispenser once featuring diet cola, cola, and punch dispensing valves can be reconfigured to a beverage dispenser with two diet cola valves and one cola valve in an attempt to satisfy the greater demand for diet cola. In this manner, the variety of drink flavors offered by a beverage dispenser is continuously changing with changing market demand.
Unfortunately, increasing the frequency of drink flavor change increased the frequency of performing the already time consuming and laborious process of reconfiguring a beverage dispenser. In the past, each dispensing valve was connected directly to a beverage syrup source as well as directly to either a carbonated or a plain water source. As such, switching between a carbonated drink flavor and a plain water or "non-carbonated" drink flavor, such as between diet cola and punch involved disconnecting a dispensing valve from its respective sources, which were typically positioned in hard-to-reach areas within the beverage dispenser. Thus, gaining access to the carbonated and plain water sources often required disassembling much of the beverage dispenser; and, upon reassembly, pressure and flow rates had to be reset across the connection between the dispensing valve and respective sources.
The introduction of a dispensing valve mounting assembly, cooperatively linked between the dispensing valve and the beverage syrup source and carbonated water or plain water sources, greatly reduced the need to disassemble the beverage dispenser to gain access to the carbonated and plain water sources as well as reduced the need to reset pressure and flow rates upon reassembly of the beverage dispenser. In effect, a dispensing valve mounting assembly remains cooperatively linked to a beverage syrup source as well as to either a carbonated or a plain water source, especially when a dispensing valve is detached from the dispensing valve mounting assembly such as during cleaning or maintenance.
In particular, current dispensing valve mounting assemblies feature two outlets, one outlet for delivering beverage syrup to a dispensing valve and one outlet for delivering either plain or carbonated water to the dispensing valve. Current dispensing valve mounting assemblies, however, only feature two inlets, one inlet connected to a beverage syrup source and one inlet connected to either a plain or a carbonated water source. Thus, because a dispensing valve mounting assembly provides only one inlet for both plain and carbonated water, interchanging between carbonated and non-carbonated drink flavors still requires disassembling the beverage dispenser to gain access to the carbonated and plain water sources as well as resetting pressure and flow rates upon reassembly of the beverage dispenser similar to when there is no dispensing valve mounting assembly. For example, when reconfiguring a dispensing valve featuring a carbonated drink flavor to accommodate a non-carbonated drink flavor, any suitable connecting means for delivering carbonated water from the carbonated water source would first need to be disconnected from the dispensing valve mounting assembly inlet and then sealed off to retain pressure for future use. Any suitable connecting means for delivering plain water from the plain water source would then need to be connected to the inlet in a manner so that a desired pressure across the connection is maintained. Thus, current dispensing valve mounting assemblies cannot easily interchange between plain and carbonated water.
Accordingly, there is a long felt need for a dispensing valve mounting assembly that permits easy interchange between plain and carbonated water without disassembling a beverage dispenser as well as resetting the pressure and flow rates across the beverage dispenser.